Insider tricks to save you a fortune at Center Parcs. The cheapest parks, exact time to go for each one and the hack that can halve the cost exposed

Ask any travel writer what question they have been asked most often and they’ll say: ‘What’s your favourite place for a holiday?’

My answer may surprise you. My favourite place – where I’ve been most often with my family – is Center Parcs Woburn Forest. We go every year.

It’s not that we’re lazy (we live just down the road), it’s because we love it: the bikes, being in the forest, the treetop adventures and the rapids in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise (our record is 17 times in a day).

We’ve also been to the ‘parcs’ in Elveden and Sherwood, plus several of the group’s European properties.

The first British Centre Parc opened in Sherwood Forest in 1987 and proved an immediate hit.

Since first going in the early 1990s, and visiting Center Parcs 20-plus times, I’ve learnt a few tricks and tips to save on a getaway. Here’s my ultimate Center Parcs guide.

An analysis of the cost of a three-night weekend in a ‘woodland lodge’ sleeping two adults and two children at all five UK Center Parcs [see graphic right] reveals dramatic differences – from as little as £549 in late February at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest in the Lake District to a whopping £1,799 at Christmas at Center Parcs Longleat in Wiltshire.

January is the cheapest month. March (as long as Easter doesn’t fall then) and September are also better value. Christmas is the costliest period, followed by October half-term, then Easter.

If your children are not at school, you can also save by going mid-week. A Monday to Friday break gives you an extra day but can be hundreds of pounds cheaper than a weekend. For example, four nights in a two-bedroom ‘New Style Woodland Lodge’ sleeping four at Whinfell Forest from Monday September 15 is from £599 for two adults and two children aged six to 17.

Whinfell Forest is generally the cheapest of the five British Center Parcs, while Longleat is the most expensive. Prices for every weekend for a year, show Whinfell is on average 11.8 per cent cheaper than Longleat.

If you’re a repeat visitor, you can take advantage of repeat booking offers; Center Parcs UK has a Repeat Guest offer.

If you book another break within 31 days of returning home you can save £50 and pay only a 10 per cent deposit. There’s also a price guarantee just in case the price drops. You also get two free day visit passes.

While Christmas is expensive, you can sometimes beat the system as Center Parcs ditches the usual Monday and Friday changeover days. This year look at December 19. Weekend breaks on this day are four instead of three days long and are not much more than normal. Breaks starting on December 30 are another way of still enjoying the Winter Wonderland activities at a lower price.

School training, or INSET, days are a cheeky way of getting a cheaper break – as individual schools often choose the dates. My children’s school has training days on November 28 and December 1 this year. Breaks that weekend are cheaper than the rest of the Winter Wonderland period.

Many schools add training days at the start of the school year. Next year, at Elveden Forest in Suffolk a four-day break for a family of four on August 31 is from £579. It’s £1,449 a fortnight earlier.

Watch out: Center Parcs UK will advertise ‘last-minute breaks’, but you’ll notice the company doesn’t say ‘last-minute deals’.

A last-minute four-night midweek break in Whinfell Forest this month costs from £1,399, while the same lodge on July 20 next year is from £1,299.

The company has villages in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and Holland and they are far cheaper – see centerparcs.eu.

A four-night mid-week break in a three-bedroom lodge for two adults and four children in a new-style woodland lodge at Longleat on July 21 costs from £1,499. A four-night break for the same dates in a similarly-sized comfort cottage in Parc Sandur in the Netherlands is from €875 (about £755); a 12-person VIP cottage there is from €1,695 (£1,460).

If we look ahead to May half-term in 2026, a two-bed lodge in Center Parcs Longleat Forest costs £1,699. That same week, you can stay at Les Hauts de Bruyeres, near Orleans in France from €448 (about £385). You could even stay in a treehouse that week in Le Bois aux Daims, near Poitiers from €960 (£830). Book early for European resorts. Book four months in advance and you get 20 per cent off and up to €45 in activity credits.

The Friends’ Benefits scheme is available to those who book three holidays in 36 months – valid at all villages except Village Nature Paris and those in the UK. You get early check-in, a welcome gift and shopping discounts.